Harlem
The Artist’s Annotations On a City Revisited
in Two Classic Photographic Essays
Introduction & Interview by Michael Torosian
1997
Renowned in the history of American photography as the first black photojournalist at LIFE Magazine, Gordon Parks turned his camera to the American experience as he knew it and created documents of acuity and compassion that endure as definitions of his time. Nowhere is this more potently revealed than in his work in Harlem.
Gordon Parks: Harlem focuses on two landmark essays: Harlem Gang Leader (1948) and A Harlem Family (1968). In interviews conducted by Michael Torosian, Parks recalls the evolution of the essays, the mechanics of working on a story for LIFE, and the lives of the people he documented. The interviews are suffused with Parks' personal history, aesthetic and cultural development, and perspective on the city whose life he chronicled.
Specifications
Composed in Linotype Bodoni Book with Metro and Futura Black for display and printed on Mohawk Superfine. The eloquence of Parks’ statement is embodied in two double-page duotone spreads which reproduce the original LIFE Magazine layouts. Two additional Harlem images are presented as tipped-in varnished duotones printed on Warrens Lustro Dull Cream. The frontispiece of the book, a self-portrait from 1940, is a tipped-in toned gelatin-silver print. Quarter bound in natural linen and paper over boards in the uniform style of the series. Fifty-six pages, 6 x 9 inches. Edition 200. December 1997. Homage Volume VIII.
Awards
Alcuin Society Citation, Limited Edition Book Design.
Status
Out of print.